Amateur Hour

In the first (and last) edition of my 2019 NBA mock draft, I lay out the picks that I would make if I was the GM, complete with brief analysis for the lottery (and some other analysis sprinkled in).  Some of them are consensus. Some are a little spicy. Hope you enjoy. 1. New Orleans Pelicans Luke Maye F/C, North Carolina Kidding. 1. New Orleans Pelicans Zion Williamson F/C, Duke  The obvious pick is the right one. Zion will be an immediate impact player from day one. His floor should be similar to earlier career Blake Griffin and his ceiling is somewhere near a 6'6" version of Giannis.   2.  Memphis Grizzlies Ja Morant PG, Murray State  Again, the obvious pick. Morant is a freak athlete who will almost certainly rank among the league's elite in passing and floor vision. Going from unranked out of high school to the number two overall pick (not to mention playing college ball in Murray, Kentucky) fits in nicely with Memphis's "G

You can find part one of this post here Kentucky What differentiates this year's recruiting class from last year's? (and the year before. And the year before. And the year before. And also the year before.) Nothing. At the season's start, the basketball product will be disjointed, spasmodic, and borderline ugly, as all of the new faces figure out their roles. The Cats will escape with a few wins over bad competition, lose to a mediocre team, and tumble down the rankings. Big Blue Nation will take to Twitter to express their ire, all the while forgetting that defeats suffered in  December   don’t mean much. Further proving that point, Kentucky will close out their non-conference schedule with a convincing victory over a top 10 team (probably Louisville). Sanity and hope will again resurface among their fan base. It's an annual tradition in Lexington. By February, the squad will be surging and entering the sport's upper echelon. And everybody will remember &quo